TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) – Tallahassee’s local governments are building a new park, roads and developments in the city’s Northeast, but conservationists say they’re breaking a promise to protect the forest.
The northeast land is owned by Leon County Schools, while the Apalachee Land Conservancy owns the easement. In order to start building, local governments are using eminent domain, a process in which the government forcibly takes land or a public good.
The purpose of the new roads and developments is to fix the constant traffic on Centerville Road that are a product of new schools and new housing developments.
The Centerville Rural Community Association (CeCRA) is now suing Blueprint, a joint city-county board, because they say the governments promised them in 1999 to keep the 50 or so acres as a conservation easement and to act as a buffer between development and a rural way of life.
Randie Denker, an attorney representing the plaintiffs, said it brings the community’s trust into question.
“And I think it’s a terrible message to the public. When a government agency makes a promise to a citizen or a group of citizens and then just says, “Well, we don’t care to uphold that any longer. How can any citizen trust them or enter any kind of an agreement or deal with them?” Denker said.
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Dr. Scott Hannahs, a former chief scientist at FSU, knows that promise very well. He says he’s been attending development meetings about the northeast since the early ‘90s.
“It’s going to be a loss, not just of a few trees, but of the animals who live here, the wildlife, it’s all going to be pushed out into people’s homes and across roads and killed,” Dr. Hannahs said.
Blueprint’s plans, found on their website, call for a two lane road – though the conservationists say they’re leaving room to expand it to four.
“I think it’s a dangerous idea to put eventually a four-lane highway right through an elementary school. I think that’s unsafe and I don’t think that’s good urban planning,” Denkers said.
The CeCRA lawsuit is really about getting a seat at the table and recognizing that the association has standing to challenge the new road.
The blue line in the above document that stretches from under I-10 north past Roberts Elementary School is in phase 2 and still under final design.
The decision on whether the new road will be built and its format will come later, likely after more intense negotiations.
Tune in to Eyewitness News at 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. for the full story. This article will also be updated this evening with all the details.
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